In this article I will try to explain to you, what is an SSD drive, how it differs from a regular hard drive, I’ll tell you about its advantages and disadvantages, and you will also learn by what parameters (criteria) you should choose an SSD drive when purchasing.
This article today about SSD drives was not born by chance. It turned out that many readers have absolutely no idea what it is.
So, after my description SSD programs life, the vast majority of users rushed to check their regular hard drives with this utility, which caused confusion in the comments. There I promised to write in more detail about SSD drives - I’m doing it.
What is an SSD drive
In “dry language” the definition of an SSD disk sounds like this: solid state drive(SSD solid-state drive) - a computer non-mechanical storage device based on memory chips.
It is unlikely that you are imbued with this meager definition. Now I’ll try to explain what an SSD drive is with a “wet tongue,” as they say, on my fingers.
I’ll come from afar... First, you need to remember (or find out for the first time) what a regular computer hard drive is (it’s also called a hard drive).
A hard drive (HDD) is a device in your computer that stores all the data (programs, movies, images, music... the operating system itself). Windows system) and it looks like this...
Information on HDD is written (and read) by reversing the magnetization of cells on magnetic plates that rotate at wild speed. Above the plates (and between them) a special carriage with a reading head rushes like a frightened one.
This whole thing is buzzing and moving constantly. In addition, this is a very “thin” device and is afraid of even a simple wobble during its operation, not to mention falling to the floor, for example (the reading heads will meet the rotating disks and hello to the information stored on the disk).
But now the solid state drive (SSD) comes onto the scene. This is the same device for storing information, but based not on rotating magnetic disks, but on memory chips, as mentioned above. It's like a big flash drive.
Nothing spinning, moving or buzzing! Plus - just crazy speed of writing/reading data!
On the left is the hard drive, on the right is the SSD drive.
It's time to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of SSD drives...
Advantages of SSD drives
1. Speed
This is the biggest plus of these devices! If you replace your old hard drive with a flash drive, you won’t recognize your computer!
Before the advent of SSD drives, the slowest device in a computer was the hard drive. It, with its ancient technology from the last century, incredibly slowed down the enthusiasm of a fast processor and fast RAM.
2. Noise level=0 dB
It makes sense - there are no moving parts. In addition, these drives do not heat up during operation, so cooling coolers turn on less often and do not work as intensely (creating noise).
3. Shock and vibration resistance
I watched a video online - a connected and working SSD was shaken, dropped on the floor, knocked on... but it continued to work quietly! No comments.
4. Light weight
Not a huge plus, of course, but still, hard drives are heavier than their modern competitors.
5. Low power consumption
I’ll do without the numbers - the battery life of my old laptop has increased by more than one hour.
Disadvantages of SSD drives
1. High cost
This is at the same time the most limiting drawback for users, but also very temporary - prices for such drives are constantly and rapidly falling.
2. Limited number of rewrite cycles
A regular, average SSD drive based on flash memory with MLC technology is capable of producing approximately 10,000 read/write cycles of information. But the more expensive type of SLC memory can already last 10 times longer (100,000 rewrite cycles).
As for me, in both cases the flash drive can easily last at least 3 years! This is just average life cycle home computer, after which the configuration is updated, components are replaced with more modern, faster and cheaper ones.
Progress does not stand still and tadpoles from manufacturing companies have already come up with new technologies that significantly increase the lifespan of SSD drives. For example, RAM SSD or FRAM technology, where the resource, although limited, is practically unattainable in real life (up to 40 years in continuous read/write mode).
3. Impossibility of recovering deleted information
Deleted information from an SSD drive cannot be restored by anyone. special utility . There are simply no such programs.
If during a large voltage surge in a regular hard drive, in 80% of cases only the controller burns out, then in SSD drives this controller is located on the board itself, along with the memory chips, and the entire drive burns out - hello family photo album.
This danger is practically reduced to zero in laptops and when using an uninterruptible power supply.
Bus capacity
Remember, I advised you how to choose a flash drive? So, when choosing a flash drive, data read/write speed is also of paramount importance. The higher this speed, the better. But you should also remember about the bus bandwidth of your computer, or rather, the motherboard.
If your laptop or desktop computer is very old, there is no point in buying an expensive and fast SSD drive. He simply will not be able to work even at half his capacity.
To make it clearer, I will outline the throughput of various buses (data transfer interface):
IDE (PATA) - 1000 Mbit/s. This is a very ancient interface for connecting devices to motherboard. To connect an SSD drive to such a bus, you need a special adapter. The point of using the described disks in this case is absolutely zero.
SATA - 1,500 Mbit/s. It's more fun, but not too much.
SATA2 - 3,000 Mbit/s. The most common this moment time bus. With such a bus, for example, my drive operates at half its capacity. He needs...
SATA3 - 6,000 Mbit/s. This is a completely different matter! This is where the SSD drive will show itself in all its glory.
So, before purchasing, find out what bus you have on your motherboard, as well as which bus the drive itself supports, and decide on the feasibility of the purchase.
Here, for example, is how I chose (and what guided) my HyperX 3K 120 GB. Read speed is 555 MB/s, and data write speed is 510 MB/s. This drive now works in my laptop at exactly half its capacity (SATA2), but exactly twice as fast as a standard hard drive.
Over time it will migrate to gaming computer children, where SATA3 is available and it will demonstrate all its power and speed without limiting factors (outdated, slow data transfer interfaces).
We conclude: if you have a SATA2 bus in your computer and do not plan to use the disk in another (more powerful and modern) computer, buy a disk with throughput no higher than 300 MB/s, which will be significantly cheaper and at the same time twice as fast as your current hard drive.
Form factor
Also, when choosing and purchasing a flash drive, pay attention to the form factor (size and dimensions). It can be 3.5″ (inches) - larger and slightly cheaper, but will not fit into a laptop, or 2.5″ - smaller and fits into any laptop (for desktop computers they are usually equipped with special adapters).
Thus, it is more practical to buy a disk in the 2.5″ form factor - and you can install it anywhere and sell it (if anything) easier. And it takes up less space system unit, which improves the cooling of the entire computer.
IOPS indicator
An important factor is IOPS (the number of input/output operations per second), the higher this indicator, the faster the drive will work with a larger volume of files.
Memory chip
Memory chips are divided into two main types MLC and SLC. The cost of SLC chips is much higher and the service life is on average 10 times longer than that of MLC memory chips, but with proper operation, the service life of drives based on MLC memory chips is at least 3 years.
Controller
This is the most important part of SSD drives. The controller controls the operation of the entire drive, distributes data, monitors the wear of memory cells and evenly distributes the load. I recommend giving preference to time-tested and well-proven controllers from SandForce, Intel, Indilinx, and Marvell.
SSD memory capacity
It would be most practical to use an SSD only for hosting operating system, and it is better to store all data (movies, music, etc.) on a second hard drive. With this option, it is enough to buy a disk with a size of ~ 60 GB. This way you can save a lot and get the same acceleration of your computer (in addition, the service life of the drive will increase).
Again, I’ll give an example of my solution - special containers for hard drives are sold online (very inexpensively), which in 2 minutes are inserted into a laptop instead of optical CD drive(which I've used a couple of times over four years). Here is a great solution for you - an old disk in place of a floppy drive, and a brand new SSD in place of a standard hard drive. It couldn't have been better.
And finally, a couple of interesting facts:
Why is a hard drive often called a hard drive? Back in the early 1960s, IBM released one of the first hard drives and the number of this development was 30 - 30, which coincided with the designation of the popular Winchester rifled weapon (Winchester), so this slang name stuck to all hard drives.
Any electronic computer includes memory storage devices. Without them, the operator would not be able to save the result of his work or copy it to another medium.
Punch cards
At the dawn of their appearance, punched cards were used - ordinary cardboard cards with digital markings applied.
One punched card contained 80 columns, each column could store 1 bit of information. The holes in these columns corresponded to a unit. The data was read sequentially. It was impossible to re-write anything onto a punched card, so a huge number of them were required. To store a 1 GB data array would require 22 tons of paper.
A similar principle was used in punched paper tapes. They were wound onto a reel, took up less space, but often tore and did not allow adding or editing data.
Floppy disks
The advent of floppy disks was a real breakthrough in information technology. Compact, capacious, they allowed storage from 300 KB on the earliest samples to 1.44 MB on latest versions. Reading and writing were carried out on magnetic disk, enclosed in a plastic case.
The main disadvantage of floppy disks was the fragility of the information stored on them. They were vulnerable to action and could be demagnetized even in public transport - a trolleybus or tram, so for long-term storage they tried not to use their data. Floppy disks were read in disk drives. At first there were 5-inch floppy disks, then they were replaced by more convenient 3-inch ones.
Flash drives have become the main competitor to floppy disks. Their only drawback was the price, but as microelectronics developed, the cost of flash drives dropped dramatically and floppy disks became a thing of history. Their production finally ceased in 2011.
Streamers
Streamers were previously used to store archived data. They were similar to video cassettes in appearance and operating principle. Magnetic tape and two reels made it possible to sequentially read and write information. The capacity of these devices was up to 100 MB. Such drives have not received mass distribution. Ordinary users preferred to store their data on hard drives, and it was more convenient to store music, films, and programs on CDs and later DVDs.
CD and DVD
These information storage devices are still in use today. An active, reflective and protective layer is applied to the plastic substrate. Information from the disk is read by a laser beam. A standard disk has a capacity of 700 MB. This is enough, for example, to record a 2-hour movie in average quality. There are also double-sided discs when active layer sprayed onto both sides of the disc. Mini-CDs are used to store small amounts of information. Drivers and instructions for computer products are now written specifically for them.
DVDs replaced CDs in 1996. They made it possible to store information with a volume of 4.7 GB. They also had the advantage that the DVD drive could read both CDs and DVDs. At the moment this is the most popular memory storage device.
Flash drives
The CD and DVD drives discussed above have a number of advantages - low cost, reliability, the ability to store large amounts of information, but they are designed for one-time recording. You cannot make changes to the recorded disc, add or remove unnecessary things. And here a fundamentally different storage device comes to our aid - flash memory.
He competed with floppy disks for a while, but quickly won the race. The main limiting factor remained the price, but now it has been reduced to an acceptable level. Modern computers no longer come with disk drives, so a flash drive has become an indispensable companion for everyone who deals with computer equipment. The maximum amount of information that fits on a flash drive reaches 1 Tb.
Memory cards
Phones, cameras, e-books, photo frames and much more require memory storage devices to operate. Due to their relatively large size, USB flash drives are not suitable for this purpose. Memory cards are specially designed for such cases. Essentially, this is the same flash drive, but adapted for small-sized products. Most of the time the memory card is in electronic device and is removed only to transfer accumulated data to permanent media.
There are many memory card standards, the smallest of which measure 14 by 12 mm. On modern computers Instead of a disk drive, a card reader is usually installed, which allows you to read most types of memory cards.
Hard drives (HDD)
Memory drives for a computer are inside it there are metal plates coated on both sides with a magnetic composition. The engine rotates them at a speed of 5400 for older models or 7200 rpm for modern devices. The magnetic head moves from the center of the disk to its edge and allows you to read and write information. The capacity of a hard drive depends on the number of disks in it. Modern models allow you to store up to 8 TB of information.
There are practically no disadvantages to this type of memory drive - these are very reliable and durable products. The cost per unit of memory in hard drives is the cheapest among all types of drives.
Solid State Drives (SSD)
No matter how good hard drives are, they have almost reached their ceiling. Their performance depends on the rotation speed of the disks, and its further increase leads to physical deformation. Flash technology, which is used in the manufacture of solid-state memory drives, does not have these disadvantages. They do not contain moving parts, therefore they are not subject to physical wear, are not afraid of impacts and do not make noise.
But there are still serious shortcomings. First of all - the price. Price solid state drive 5 times higher hard drive similar volume. Another significant drawback is the short service life. Solid state drives are usually chosen for installing the operating system, and a hard drive is used for data storage. The cost of solid-state drives is steadily decreasing, and there is progress in increasing their service life. In the near future, they should supplant traditional hard drives, just as flash drives supplanted floppy disks.
External drives
Internal storage and inner memory are good for everyone, but often you need to transfer information from one computer to another. Back in 1995, the USB interface was developed, allowing you to connect a wide variety of devices to a PC, and memory drives were no exception. At first these were flash drives, later DVD players with a USB connector appeared and, finally, HDDs and SSD.
The attractiveness of the USB interface is its simplicity - just plug in a flash drive or other storage device and you can work, no driver installation or other additional steps are required. The development of the interface and the appearance first of USB 2.0 and then of USB 3.0 sharply increased the speed of data exchange over this channel. The performance now differs little from the internal one, and their size cannot but rejoice. An external memory drive fits easily in the palm of your hand and allows you to store hundreds of gigabytes of information.
It probably won't be wrong to say that Computer World enters the era of solid state drives. Indeed, in comparison with them, hard drives are significantly inferior in power. For example, doubling RAM computer, you can increase its performance by no more than 10%. It's another matter if you equip your computer with an SSD.
Thus, a solid-state drive for a laptop purchased three years ago can increase its power by almost 3 times. This means that a laptop “upgraded” with an SSD, firstly, has performance almost equal to a modern model in the same price category. Secondly, the launch of all programs is faster, including video conversion.
Thus, the question of why a solid-state drive is needed can be answered briefly - to increase the performance of your computer or laptop. However, SSDs also have other important advantages.
Plus the first: stability. Hard disks with moving heads and rotating magnetic platters, they are susceptible to damage and shock, unlike solid-state drives. Microcircuits SSD memory, due to the absence of moving parts in them, are not sensitive to external influences. Therefore, even after your laptop falls from a small height, all data will be saved and will not be damaged.
Plus the second: silent operation. SSDs use flash memory that responds to high-speed data transfer. In addition, thanks to flash memory, SSDs operate almost silently. True, the fan of the computer cooling system makes this plus little noticeable.
How to install a solid state drive? Most modern PCs have a bay where you can install an SSD, and thus use a solid-state drive and a hard drive in parallel. But to really improve your computer's performance, you will need to move the operating system from the hard drive to the SSD.
To simplify this procedure, there are special programs, produced by manufacturing companies, as well as external containers costing from 300 rubles. Containers make it possible to use a solid-state drive as removable storage. After transferring the data to the SSD using a USB cable, the drive is removed from the external container and installed in the computer. In this case, the data is saved on the hard drive.
But what if your PC or laptop doesn't have an extra bay where you can install an SSD? In this case, you will have to replace the hard drive with it. To do this, you first need to transfer information system to an external hard drive using an SSD with an external container, and then replace it.
How to choose a solid state drive? The main guidelines are the SSD capacity, a good combination of memory and controller, and a suitable connector. It is these factors that play a significant role in increasing computer performance after SSD installation. Flash memory and the controller affect the data transfer speed of the solid-state drive, for example, they determine whether a movie will be copied in 45 seconds or 75.
When an SSD is connected to a laptop or PC, data is transferred through the SATA connector. It is better to choose an SSD with SATA interface 3, it provides higher transfer speeds; however, SATA 2, although it has half the performance, is still significantly faster than a hard drive in speed. The speed of operation is also affected by the capacity of the solid-state drive. The performance of computers equipped with an SSD with a capacity of 500 GB is much higher than those with a 250 GB drive or, especially, a 120 GB drive.
Of course, the capacity of an SSD directly affects its price: the larger the capacity, the more expensive the drive is. However, the ability to remain fully operational for many years will pay off the investment in the future. So, having dealt with the question of why a solid-state drive (SSD) is needed, it remains to mention the fastest models of various capacities.
To do this, we will use the results of independent testing. Computer Bild magazine compared solid-state drives in terms of data transfer speed, power consumption, heat dissipation and performance indicators. As a result, among models with a capacity of 120 GB, the Samsung SSD 840 Pro took first place, and OCZ SSDs from the Vector series showed the highest performance among SSDs with capacities of 250 and 500 GB.
What shouldn't you expect from SSDs? Firstly, low power consumption, secondly, increased battery life. Both of these indicators remain unchanged when replacing the HDD with an SSD. Nevertheless, it is already clear that the future belongs to SSDs, and we hope our review will help you make a good choice.
Recently, solid-state drives have become increasingly installed on computers and laptops. So what is it SSD drive? To put it simply, this is a huge flash drive, only with faster writing and reading parameters. There is not a single mechanical part in a solid state drive. It consists only of microcircuits. Hard drives have a large amount of memory, but low speed, and solid-state drives, with low capacity, have speeds several times higher than HDDs.
Features of work
Let's look at HDD operation and SSD when copying or reading small files. The smaller the file size, the greater the difference in speed between hard drive and solid state.
Just imagine that the hard drive is a notepad with some information. And to find and put together this information, you need to leaf through your notebook. And an SSD is a sheet of paper on which the data is at your fingertips. Accordingly he will find information much faster.
The HDD spends a lot of time moving the read heads and searching for the necessary sectors on the magnetic plates. The SSD simply provides the ready-made information you need. This happens when the system starts, when copying or reading several thousand small files (for example, photos). Therefore the speed of this type storage capacity is several tens of times higher than that of the HDD. Programs and the system itself installed on a solid-state drive will launch much faster than on a regular hard drive.
It is best to buy SSDs from manufacturers that have a proven track record of producing these products. Such companies include Crucial, Kingston, Corsair, Samsung, Tohiba, Transcend, Intel, OCZ, SunDisk. You should not purchase solid-state drives from Chinese brands or little-known companies. These are: Apacer, Silicon Power, A-Data.
Since most SSDs have a small amount of memory but very high performance, they are mainly used to install an operating system and programs on them to increase their loading speed.
Flaws
The main disadvantages of solid-state drives include their cost. Even an SSD with a small capacity costs much more than regular SSDs hard drives, and their prices fluctuate in different directions every year.
SSD is flash memory consisting of thousands of cells that tend to wear out. Most wear occurs when information is written to the disk. When reading, cells fail much more slowly. It is conventionally believed that the smaller the capacity of a solid-state drive, the more reliable it is, since it does not have additional chips and consumes less power. But this is all theoretical and has not been confirmed in any way.
Another disadvantage of SSDs is the inability to recover data when deleted. If you accidentally experience a power surge, only a small board in the hard drive will burn out, and the information that remains on the magnetic plates can be restored. The solid state drive fails completely with all the files on it.
pros
Read and write speed is one of the most important parameters of an SSD. For solid-state drives, this speed ranges from 150 to 560 MB.s. An average-priced disk can have read and write speeds within 450 MB.s. The random access time of solid-state drives is not taken into account, since it is equal to 0.1 - 0.2 ms. SSDs have a SATA-3 connector, so the same connector should preferably be installed on the motherboard. Otherwise, the disk will not work at full capacity. An SSD is also much more durable than a regular hard drive. He is not afraid of blows or
falls.
So what should you choose?
Now you have an idea what it is SSD drives. Let's look at when it makes sense to use them.
For office computer You can only install one 320 GB hard drive. If you play games or have a professional computer, then the best option is to install two disks. SSD size 60 - 128 GB. For installation of programs, and operating system, and a 1 - 2 TB hard drive. If you use a laptop as an addition to your main computer, then installing a hard drive with a capacity of up to 500 GB will be enough. If the laptop is the main computer, then it would be best to use a 750 GB HDD in it - or higher, depending on the purpose for which it is used.
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storage device- A device for creating a certain supply of processed metal in the line of a continuous technological unit, ensuring the continuity of its operation, for example, a roll storage unit in the line of a continuous annealing unit (CAN) of a strip.… … Technical Translator's Guide
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Charged particles (storage ring), an element of a system of colliding beams, which is an annular vacuum chamber located in a magnet. field, in which particles from a large number of charging acceleration cycles accumulate and circulate for a long time. h... ... Physical encyclopedia
Storage device- a device for creating a certain supply of processed metal in the line of a continuous technological unit, ensuring the continuity of its operation, for example, a roll storage device in the line of the unit... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Metallurgy
STORAGE DEVICE- a device for creating a certain supply of processed metal in the line of a continuous technological unit, ensuring the continuity of its operation, for example, a roll storage device in the line of the unit... ... Metallurgical dictionary
storage device- Memory device; memory; industry storage device; Drive Part computer, intended for recording, storing and issuing information presented in code form. Device for accumulating and retaining accelerated... ... Polytechnic terminology Dictionary
storage device- kaupiklis statusas T sritis automatika atitikmenys: engl. accumulator; storage unit; store vok. Akkumulator, m; Speicher, m rus. battery, m; storage, m pranc. accumulateur, m; dispositif d emmagasinage, m … Automatikos terminų žodynas
I m. One who is engaged in accumulating something (property, money, etc.). II m. 1. Mechanism, technical device, the main function of which is the accumulation of something. 2. Device for long-term storage of information; external memory… … Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Efremova
1. drive, drives, drive, drives, drive, drives, drive, drives, drive, drives, drive, drives 2. drive, drives, drive, drives, drive, drives, drive,... ... Forms of words
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